


It Started With A Button

by alohdark



Category: Daredevil (Comics), Marvel, Punisher (Comics)
Genre: M/M, Unbeta'd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-16
Updated: 2016-03-16
Packaged: 2018-05-27 03:54:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6268582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alohdark/pseuds/alohdark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It started with a button, just to let Frank know that Matt knew where he was, and it became something more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It Started With A Button

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Fratt Week Day 6. My random items were: Teddy Bear, Boombox, Controller, Charger, Mp3 player, Button

At first it started as way to let Frank know that he knew where his current safe house was. It started with a simple button. Fallen off of one of the bags Frank had been using to carry his arsenal around New York City with him. Matt had found it after an argument then two of them had on a rooftop overlooking 10th avenue. The button was of no consequence but he still picked it up and left it outside the door of where Frank was staying.   
A week later Matt spent an entire day looking for the charger for his computer that he kept in his office. Nothing in his office had been touched and moved. Nothing was even a hair out of place. Except that his charger was missing. Which is why Matt wasn’t sure if he should have been furious or laugh when just before 3pm a package was delivered to him from a Mr. F.C. that contained his computer cord. 

It became a sort of game after that. Matt would find things left behind at the scene after a confrontation with the Punisher and then leave them somewhere in Frank’s current safe house. Anything from shell casings to an x-box controller dropped by a teen just looking to get high who’d dropped everything as soon as The Punisher showed up. Then Frank would steal something from Matt’s home or office and mail it back to him or leave it someplace that Matt was headed. Including stealing his mp3 player and having a kid bring it to Foggy while the two of them were out for lunch before court. 

It continued like this until it suddenly stopped. Frank disappeared from New York and while Matt should have been glad for the drop in bloodshed, he did admit to himself that he missed running across that familiar heart beat during his nightly rounds. He began to check on every one of Frank’s hideouts that he knew about to see if there was any recent activity but nothing changed for months. Matt didn’t want to admit that it caused his mood to drop every so slightly when he didn’t have Frank’s next ‘present’ to look forward to. 

It wasn’t like they had promised to keep doing this forever. It wasn’t like either one had even acknowledged they were doing it. It was always just moments of opportunity to let the other know they were keeping an eye on each other. 

Which is why Matt wasn’t sure what had possessed him to buy a teddy bear dressed in a marine uniform. All he knew is that as soon as the child had squeezed it and the bear began to sing The Hall’s of Montezuma he had turned on his heal and entered the toy store to purchase one of his own. He knew he’d never give it to Frank. Knew he should have bought it at all. But he didn’t return it. He put it on the shelf in his false closet next to his extra Daredevil gear. It became a fixture in his life as every night he ‘saw’ it as he changed uniforms before making his nightly rounds. 

Once a week or so he traveled past one of Frank’s safe houses, just out of habit after all these months. He didn’t even pay too much attention anymore. Until he passed by one of Frank’s oldest hideaways and Matt caught a faint sound from within the concrete walls. He ran across roofs and jumped down the fire escape across the alley as he recognized the sound. Matt listened closely and found the boombox in the empty room, a boombox that hadn’t been there two months ago when Matt had been by last. It was playing a song by one of Matt’s favorite jazz musicians but hadn't listened to in a long time now. ‘I Get Along Without You’ by Chet Baker. Matt smiled softly to himself. 

He cut his night rounds short and returned to his house. He knew without having to strain his senses that someone had let themselves into his home. But the heartbeat in his kitchen and the smell of fresh coffee kept him from being on alert. The thought came unbidden, but not unwelcome, that Frank had come home.

**Author's Note:**

> It's mentioned in a couple issues that Matt loves jazz music and he's seen putting on a Chet Baker record at least once that I know of. And since I, too, like Chet Baker I just decided to go with that as his favorite musician.


End file.
